MFP/ANA e-Newsletter: October 3, 2025

MENTAL HEALTH, SUBSTANCE USE, AND NURSING ARTICLES

Childhood Experiences Shape Nurses’ Burnout and Depression (opens new window)

In a groundbreaking study, researchers have unveiled the intricate relationship between childhood experiences and their profound implications on mental health among nursing professionals. The investigation, led by Xue, Lin, and Guo, delves deep into the psychological realms that shape an individual’s journey from adolescence to adulthood. It becomes increasingly evident that the foundational experiences of childhood are not merely anecdotal; they carve pathways that can lead to mental health issues such as depression and burnout later in life, especially in high-stress professions like nursing. Read more (opens new window) 

April Koh Is Using AI to Make Finding Mental Health Support Easier (opens new window)

April Koh vividly remembers the first time she tried to talk to her mother about her mental health, when she was about nine years old. “She was doing the laundry, and I kind of snuck up behind her and said to her, ‘I think I’m depressed,’ and she told me, ‘Don’t be ridiculous.’” Her mother’s response didn’t come from a lack of care but a lack of understanding. “My mother is incredibly loving and the best mother I could have hoped for, but she didn’t have the vocabulary to talk about what I was feeling and what I was going through,” Koh says. Read more (opens new window)

Study identifies numerous discharge barriers for nursing home residents with serious mental illness (opens new window)

Nursing home residents who suffer from serious mental illnesses such as bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders face a variety of barriers preventing their potential discharge back into the community, according to a September study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The proportion of nursing home residents with serious mental illness nearly doubled from 10.5% in 2007 to 18.6% in 2017. Nursing homes are also second to prisons and jails as the largest institutional care setting for adults older than 18 years with serious mental illness. Read more (opens new window)

Macroeconomic income inequality, brain structure and function, and mental health (opens new window)

Income inequality, a structural property of societies characterized by the unequal distribution of resources, is associated with adverse mental health outcomes during adolescence, which is a sensitive period of neurodevelopment. While previous research has explored the impact of individual-level socioeconomic factors on brain structure and function, the neurobiological mechanisms linking structural inequality to mental health disparities remain poorly understood. Here, using data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study, we investigated the associations between state-level income inequality, indexed by the Gini coefficient, and brain structure and functional connectivity in over 8,000 children aged 9–10 years (from 17 states in the USA). Read more (opens new window)  (opens new window)

Professor Leads Groundbreaking Study on Menopause-Mental Health Connection (opens new window)

A Fordham biology professor is leading the first study examining how the transition to menopause affects the human brain at the cellular and molecular levels, supported by $2.8 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The study aims to pave the way for better treatments for mental illness related to the menopause transition. Women’s greater risk of mental illness during this period is “under-studied,” as is women’s health in general, said the professor, Marija Kundakovic, Ph.D. Read more (opens new window) 

Nevada, Arizona and Alabama rank lowest in nation for mental health. Where your state lands (opens new window)

A new report ranks US states on rates of mental well-being and mental health care, and New York, Hawaii and New Jersey have outperformed the rest — in that order. The 2025 State of Mental Health in America report sizes up how all 50 states and Washington, DC, fared on 17 measures of mental health in 2022 and 2023, according to Mental Health America, which published the report on Wednesday. The nonprofit promotes mental health and illness prevention through education, research and advocacy. Read more (opens new window)

With therapy hard to get, people lean on AI for mental health. What are the risks? (opens new window)

Kristen Johansson's therapy ended with a single phone call. For five years, she'd trusted the same counselor — through her mother's death, a divorce and years of childhood trauma work. But when her therapist stopped taking insurance, Johansson's $30 copay ballooned to $275 a session overnight. Even when her therapist offered a reduced rate, Johansson couldn't afford it. The referrals she was given went nowhere. "I was devastated," she said. Read more (opens new window)

Data reveals serious mental health challenges amongst AANHPI students—but there is hope in cultural connection (opens new window)

As a young student, researcher and educator Jenn Nguyen both witnessed and felt the pressure of the “model minority” myth that weighed so heavily on both her and her fellow Asian and Asian American classmates. She’s carried those experiences with her ever since—and it’s part of what inspires her work as a researcher and educator. “These pressures not only shaped academic performance in school but also impacted wellbeing, mental health, and identity,” Nguyen told the Northwest Asian Weekly. “What really motivated me was seeing how systemic inequities were showing up for [Asian and Asian American] youth with data invisibility, limited culturally sustaining support, and policies built on broad pan-Asian identities, and how these identities shape [Asian and Asian American] mental health.” Read more (opens new window)  (opens new window)

More Kids Using Sodium Nitrate in Suicide Attempts (opens new window)

Amid an uptick in U.S. adolescents attempting suicide by using sodium nitrate and nitrate -- chemical compounds commonly used in food preservation -- researchers found several trends regarding affected youth, in a recent study. Kids who died by sodium nitrate poisoning skewed older compared with kids who used other means (62% were 17- to 21-year-olds vs 36% in the non-sodium nitrate group). White kids comprised the majority of both groups (62% vs 73%, respectively), but Asian kids had the second highest prevalence in the sodium nitrate group (24%) while Black kids did in the non-sodium nitrate group (12%), according to Frank Pleban, PhD, of Tennessee State University in Nashville. Read more (opens new window)  (opens new window)

Hair-Loss Drug and Suicide; HRV Biofeedback for Addiction; ADHD Med for Catatonia? (opens new window)

Current evidence shows the commonly used hair-loss drug finasteride can cause depression and suicidality, with "a benefit-to-harm balance that justifies action to protect the public," said authors of a review in Journal of Clinical Psychiatry. Among adults with substance use disorder, heart rate variability (HRV) biofeedback significantly reduced negative affect, craving, and alcohol and drug use in a randomized trial. (JAMA Psychiatry) Patients with opioid use disorder diagnoses increased 40% from 2021 to 2024 in the commercially insured population, according to the FAIR Health Opioid Tracker. Read more (opens new window)  (opens new window)

'You Can Really Clean Up': Concerns Arise About Doctors as Expert Witnesses (opens new window)

When a Harvard epidemiologist was found to have been paid nearly $150,000 to testify against Tylenol's manufacturer, it reignited a long-running debate about whether physicians who serve as paid courtroom experts can later be impartial voices in shaping public health policy. The issue resurfaced after the White House promoted unproven claims linking acetaminophen (Tylenol) and autism -- an argument leaning in part on research by Andrea Baccarelli, MD, PhD, of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston. Court records from 2023 show Baccarelli collected the six-figure sum for more than 200 hours of work as an expert witness for plaintiffs suing the drug's manufacturer. Read more (opens new window)  (opens new window)

HOTLINE RESOURCES

988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (opens new window) or 1-800-273-TALK (8255) 

The Substance and Mental Health Services Administration (opens new window) provides COVID-19 guidance and resources to assist individuals, providers, communities and sates across the country. The website is updated daily.

The National CLAS Standards

The National CLAS Standards are a set of 15 action steps intended to advance health equity, improve quality, and help eliminate health care disparities by providing a blueprint for individuals and health and health care organizations to implement culturally and linguistically appropriate services. View the standards here (opens new window)